


With You, The Sunset Seems Even More Beautiful

by velvetnoire



Series: lonely moon, shining sun [2]
Category: Witch's Heart (Video Game)
Genre: Crying, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Happy Ending AU, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Love Confessions, Romance, they watch the sunset together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-30 01:28:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14485806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/velvetnoire/pseuds/velvetnoire
Summary: How long has it been since he's seen the sun?-Noel smiles, warmer than he's ever been before because this is it. This is just the beginning of their love, fresh as a rose garden that had been fraught with briars, growing out of thorns to meet the light.





	With You, The Sunset Seems Even More Beautiful

How long has it been since he's seen the sun?

Noel extends a hand, tremulous and disbelieving. There is unspoken emotion lodged in his throat and a thousand words painted in front of him: far too lovely for him to even begin to describe.

His hand - almost unhealthy in its parchment pallor - is kissed by gentle warmth, unfading unlike a dream. It is the gentle caress of, for once, merciful reality.

He lets it fall, clutching it to his chest - his heart - as if grasping proof that it was real: that yes, he was here, he was here, he was _here_.

It's too bright, searing his retinas in its brilliance. But it is nothing compared to the sensation that overwhelms him, this happiness rising like a tidal wave and crashing with all the force of stars colliding: and meeting Claire's eyes, he can feel the same. So blue like the expanse above, so carefree and wide with wonder...

There are no words when they embrace, shaking with the relief of making it out alive together, clutching tight and never wanting to let go. Finally, finally...

No longer did he have to languish by day until the stars shone in the sky to see her smile, to hear her voice.

No longer was he her magician, but perhaps one day - one day, he could be her prince.

"Remember when we played until the sun set? We'd watch the sun dip beneath the horizon and the stars fill the sky..." 

Nostalgia hangs from him like a worn winter coat, but it’s too warm to wear and far too small. Those times have passed, but those simpler times never fail to bring a feeling of fondness.

Racing across fields filled with the sweet fragrance of wildflowers, electric exhilaration would have filled their veins until, skidding to a stop, the winner would be declared between wheezing breaths. Claire most frequently reigned champion, but really, he had little care for winning, then and even now.

He was far more invested in seeing the victorious smile spread across Claire's face, face flush from exertion and ribboned hair unkempt, beaming with utter delight.

"Ahaha! Those were the days!"

Claire laughs, her cheerful remark filling him with infectious joy. His greatest wish was simple - it didn’t require contracts nor magical methods, but just one thing: her happiness.

Giddiness - the whirling euphoria of it, as if he had been spun round and round, dizzying and unbridled and warm, fills him. Quiet laughter escapes, first soft until it crescendos into full-fledged chuckles, and Claire accompanies him, giggling like the chime of the church bells he'd like to hear one day, standing right by her side.

They've come so far. Again and again, he had tried and failed to achieve their happy ending, desperately searching for the light at the end of a tunnel that had stretched so long in darkness. And now that they were finally here...it was like a dream that he thought that would have never come true.

"It had to be terrible," Claire murmurs suddenly, almost indistinct - more like a thought voiced aloud than directed at him, but he hears it all the same.

Yes, it had been heartrending - to see her corpse laid in a sickening halo of crimson, again and again and _again_. It was a cycle that made him so, so _tired_ , yet he could never rest until things were made right. Not being able to be there to protect her, his cursed inability - his _uselessness_ \- had made him cry more times than he could count.

Heh. He really hadn't changed from when he was younger - once a crybaby, always a crybaby. It was almost funny in the way he wanted to begin laughing and never stop until his lungs were starved of breath. He was a fool, yes - but at least he was a stubborn one.

(He just didn’t know when to give up.)

"You know, I would do it all over again.” Noel begins with nothing less than his utmost sincerity.“You were the one who kept me going, Claire," he smiles, warmth trailing down his cheeks, salt streaking skin. "You were always my hero."

Claire halts, as if suddenly short-circuiting from being the focus of such genuine devotion.

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that, Noel,” Claire whispers, sorrow in her voice for him,”I'm sorry you had to suffer so much."

Claire apologizes with her head bowed, face framed in melancholy blue with a heartfelt, "Thank you, Noel. Thank you."

 _For saving me_ , are the words left unsaid. For everything.

He touches her cheek - gently, so gently - for all her strength, in this moment she is delicate - and wipes her tears away, gazing into her eyes once more.

"You are my happiness, Claire."

 _You're welcome_ , was what he had meant to say, but the words had somehow lost their way.

Together, they watch the painted sky that says a thousand words they may never say, but are understood without speaking and a dying sun all blushing rose and rust, signifying swift nightfall and stars ascending into the shadows.

Together, they would walk towards a shining future. Who knew what it held? New problems and new prospects, new faces and memories to make...

But for now - here, they would mourn; a funeral for the lost souls perhaps achieving heaven beyond the stars.

"Maybe Ashe can see his family again. Wilardo can be at peace, and...Sirius can finally be with Miss Dorothy, where he’s happiest."

"Yes...in a way, perhaps they really have achieved their wishes."

Claire takes Noel's hand in his and squeezes it in reassurance.

She remembers energetic Ashe, with his smile sharp as a knife and his maniacal laughter echoing through her mind on repeat as he advanced, blade in hand - but the memory of his smile when they had baked cookies together lingers, too.

She remembers quiet Wilardo, bandaging her wounds - and the remorse, heavy in his expression as he readied his gun to pull the trigger.

She remembers stubborn Sirius and his scant smiles, how he protected her even when he was shaking from fear. She remembers the time he had been driven mad, axe in hand and eyes wild and animalistic. She forgives him for it, although he would say her forgiveness would be foolish. He wasn't in the right state of mind, really, so how could she blame him..?

 _How sad_ , she thinks, _that they had to resort to this. It was tragic, the way their fates had turned out to be. But - I’m not sad enough to lay my life down and die. Why can’t we all have a happy ending_?

But now - their foreheads meet, and smiles, in synchrony, bloom like the flowers of the field: chaste acacia and lovely ambrosia, swaying in the wind, casting haunting afterimages from her mind if only for a few moments longer. And then...

Noel doesn't need a confession to realize it, because he knows in the way their hearts beat as one, the way birds take to the sky and fish to the sea, but says it anyway.

"Claire...Claire, I love you. More than anything!" Ah. He's blushing, isn't he?

“I’d be happy to...stay forever by your side!”

"....Noel....I, um...! Love you! Too!!" The words come in short bursts: with fists clenched at the intensity at the bold proclamation, Claire ducks her head in sudden shyness, rendered unable to say much else.

Noel smiles, warmer than he's ever been before because this is it. This is just the beginning of their love, fresh as a rose garden that had been fraught with briars, growing out of thorns to meet the light.

Ah, yes: it was love that he felt fiercely unrelenting and eternal as the sun, like gentle spring had come from unrelenting winter.

It was love, and it was beautiful - but not as beautiful as the expression on Claire's face, vibrant with bliss.

He takes it in and smiles for the first time in what had felt like forever.

**Author's Note:**

> I support this relationship. I have so many feelings for these two...Please let them be happy, and I hope you enjoy reading! Feedback would be greatly appreciated.


End file.
